Find the end points

Two characteristics must be agreed to by the mapping team:

1. Clearly defined beginning and end points.  This can help prevent "scope creep" during the mapping process.
2. The level of detail.  This will require some guesswork in determining the appropriate level of detail.  Too little and the team will likely miss critical opportunities.  Too much and team members will get bogged down and effectively lose sight of "the forest through the trees."  This discussion should consider the intended result of the mapping process.

I have found the mapping process to be most effective by starting with a simple macro-flowchart which would should enough information to convey a good general understanding of the process.  As the team discusses potential areas of opportunities, we would then add detail only where necessary.

Iterating through this process as projects close and new ones begin will continually add and improve the process map, making it a living document that can support both strategic thinking and tactical planning and bridge both areas in a powerful way.

What is a process?

A dictionary may define a process as a series of actions, changes or functions bringing about a result.  Take a moment to reflect on your day.  You will begin to see the processes you regularly interact with.  Once you can see a process from beginning to end, you will likely start to recognize steps that can improve.

See the process

Over the years, I have found getting processes and procedures out of the head and putting them on paper make process improvement highly effective by creating the ability to see the entire process from begining to end at one time.  It takes tremendous effort but yields tremendous results.

I once visited a food manufacturing plant to implement a new accouting process.  We (meaning the accounting staff) spent the entire first day mapping each step of every staffer in a workstream during a closing period.  The next morning we reviewed the map looking for missing steps, then took a step back.

The team quickly identified redundancy when they saw two individuals did identical work.  They streamlined nearly 50% of the process with a simple solution: reassign tasks.



Current Process



New Process



What "seeing the process" can do:

• Show complexity, gaps, and/or redundancies
• Compare actual (current state) versus ideal (future state) processes to identify where to focus efforts
• Allow team members to agree on a single process
• Provide training

This series will provide some practical tips and insights to mapping a process.

Separating people from process

Many years ago I heard a fantastic phrase from Robert Uyekawa: "you should separate people from process."

An example:  The pianist for a church choir was out of town and made arrangements for a substitute during practice.  She reviewed the music with the substitute who indicated she already had copies.  That Sunday, one song the choir had practiced and knew well for some time suddenly seemed very difficult.  Members of the choir quietly mumbled displeasure towards the substitute pianist because she apparently could not play the notes correctly.

The director walked over to the piano and found the copy of the song the pianist brought had a different arrangement.  She had been playing the notes correctly the entire time according to the music she had in front of her.

Robert points out that problems arise not from the people interacting with a process, but from the process itself either creating the problems or allowing them to exist.

When defects appear in a product or service, sometimes the human interactions with the process may have had an influence.  However, is your process for creating the product or delivering the service robust enough to prevent human errors from introducing defects?  Do your policies include disciplinary action for employees involved with quality issues or do you instead have a provision for modifying the process itself to eliminate the potential for future defects?

A beginning to my lean journey

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when I began to consciously look for continuous improvement opportunities.  Going back through my memory bank, I can specifically see an instance in my teen-age years mowing lawns.  Motivated to spend more time in conditioned air than pushing a mower in the Texas heat, I looked for ways to minimize mowing time without risking customer satisfaction.  A common characteristic of front yards contains a sidewalk from the mailbox to the front door.  I realized that by mowing the entire yard at one time resulted in passing over this walkway multiple times resulting in wasted effort (my pushing), energy (gasoline) and process (spinning blades) because the time spent on the walkway was time not cutting grass.  A quick adjustment to my mow pattern to work one half of the yard at a time usually resulted in passing over the sidewalk only one time.  Technically still waste in the process, however, my productivity did increase.